Inspirational Quotes by Fyodor Dostoevsky

“But who discovered it? Not reason. Reason discovered the struggle for existence, and the law that requires us to oppress all who hinder the satisfaction of our desires. That is the deduction of reason. But loving one's neighbor reason could never discover, because it's irrational.”

“He did not know that Levin was feeling as though he had grown wings. Levin knew she was listening to his words and that she was glad to listen to him. And this was the only thing that interested him.”

“He had known at the bottom of his heart that he would see her here today. But to keep his thoughts free, he had tried to persuade himself that he did not know it. Now when he heard that she was here, he was suddenly conscious of such delight, and at the same time of such dread, that his breath failed him and he could not utter what he wanted to say.”

“Let me tell you, novice, that the absurd is only too necessary on earth. The world stands on absurdities, and perhaps nothing would have come to pass in it without them.”

“Kendi planlarımızı yapıyorduk, ama kaderin de planları olduğunu unutmuştuk.”

“Totuşi, acum, viaţa mea, întreaga mea viaţă, independent de ceea ce poate să mi se întâmple într-un moment anume, ea nu numai că nu e lipsită de înţeles ca altădată, dar are un sens vădit: al binelui pe care îl pot pune în ea.”

“You do not admit the conceivability at all?' he queried. 'But why not? We admit the existence of electricity, of which we know nothing. Why should there not be some new force, still unknown to us, which...' 'When electricity was discovered,' Levin interrupted hurriedly, 'it was only the phenomenon that was discovered, and it was unknown from what it proceeded and what were its effects, and ages passed before its applications were conceived. But the spiritualists have begun with tables writing for them, and spirits appearing to them, and have only later started saying that it is an unknown force.' Vronsky listened attentively to Levin, as he always did listen, obviously interested in his words. 'Yes, but the spiritualists say we don't know at present what this force is, but there is a force, and these are the conditions in which it acts. Let the scientific men find out what the force consists in. Not, I don't see why there should not be a new force, if it...' 'Why, because with electricity,' Levin interrupted again, 'every time you rub tar against wool, a recognized phenomenon is manifested, but in this case it does not happen every time, and so it follows it is not a natural phenomenon.”

“Toda la diversidad, la hermosura, el encanto de la vida, se componen de luces y sombras.”

“Remember especially that you cannot be the judge of anyone. For there can be no judge of a criminal on earth until the judge knows that he, too, is a criminal, exactly the same as the one who stands before him, and that he is perhaps most guilty of all for the crime of the one standing before him.”

“Darya Alexandrovna made no reply. She suddenly felt that she had got far away from Anna; that there lay between them a barrier of questions on which they could never agree, and about which it was better not to speak.”

“Normalmente, gli artisti che affrontano questo soggetto fanno in modo di dare a Cristo un viso bellissimo: un viso che gli orrendi supplizi non sono riusciti a deformare. Invece, nel quadro di Rogožin, si vede il cadavere di un uomo che è stato straziato prima di essere crocifisso, un uomo percosso dalle guardie e dalla folla, che è stramazzato sotto il peso della croce e che ha sofferto per sei ore (secondo il mio calcolo) prima di morire. Il viso dipinto in quel quadro è proprio quello di un uomo appena tolto dalla croce; non è irrigidito dalla morte ma è ancora caldo e, starei per dire, vitale. La sua espressione è quella di chi sta ancora sentendo il dolore patito. Un viso di un realismo spietato. Io so che, secondo la Chiesa, fin dai primi secoli, Cristo, fattosi uomo, soffrì realmente come un uomo e che il suo corpo fu soggetto a tutte le leggi della natura. Il viso del quadro è gonfio e sanguinolento; gli occhi dilatati e vitrei. Ma, nel contemplarlo, si pensa: «Se gli Apostoli, le donne che stavano presso la croce, i fedeli, gli adoratori e tutti gli altri videro il corpo di Cristo in quello stato, come potevano credere all’imminente resurrezione? Se le leggi della natura sono così potenti, come farebbe l’uomo a dominarle quando la loro prima vittima è stato proprio Colui che, da vivo, impartiva i suoi ordini alla stessa natura, Colui che disse: “Talitha cumi!”, e la bambina morta resuscitò; Colui che esclamò: “Alzati e cammina!”, e Lazzaro, che era già morto, uscì fuori dal suo sepolcro?». Guardando quel quadro, si è presi dall’idea che la natura non sia altro che un mostro enorme, muto, inesorabile, una macchina immensa ma sorda e insensibile, capace di afferrare, lacerare, schiacciare e assorbire nelle sue viscere un Essere che, da solo, valeva come la natura intera con tutte le sue leggi e tutta la terra che, forse, fu creata solo perché potesse nascere quell’uomo! Il quadro dà proprio l’impressione di questa forza cieca, crudele, stupida, alla quale tutto è fatalmente soggetto. Dentro di esso, non c’è nessuno fra quelli che erano soliti seguire Gesù. In quella sera, una sera che annientava tutte le loro speranze e forse anche tutta la loro fede, coloro che seguivano Gesù dovettero provare un’angoscia senza nome. Atterriti, si dileguarono, sostenuti soltanto da una grande idea, un’idea che nessuno avrebbe più potuto togliergli o canccllargli: se il Maestro, alla vigilia del supplizio, avesse potuto vedere la propria immagine, sarebbe salito lo stesso sulla croce? Sarebbe morto nel modo in cui morì?”

“You have only to creep into a secluded corner or into a crocodile, to shut your eyes, and you immediately devise a perfect millennium for mankind.”

“But I am alive still. Now what's to be done? what's to be done?”

“There is a line in everything which it is dangerous to overstep; and when it has been overstepped, there is no return.”

“And now the minister prayed. A good, generous prayer it was, and went into details: it pleaded for the church, and the little children of the church; for the other churches of the village; for the village itself; for the county; for the State; for the State officers; for the United States; for the churches of the United States; for Congress; for the President; for the officers of the Government; for poor sailors, tossed by stormy seas; for the oppressed millions groaning under the heel of European monarchies and Oriental despotisms; for such as have the light and the good tidings, and yet have not eyes to see nor ears to hear withal; for the heathen in the far islands of the sea; and closed with a supplication that the words he was about to speak might find grace and favor, and be as seed sown in fertile ground, yielding in time a grateful harvest of good. Amen.”

“In no affairs of mere prejudice, pro or con, do we deduce inferences with entire certainty, even from the most simple data.”

“Freedom of speech’ means you support the right of people to say exactly those ideas which you do not agree with.”

“Dentro de nós fica incomensuravelmente mais do que exprimem as palavras.”

“Jaschwin, ein Spieler und ein Trunkenbold, ein völlig grundsatzloser Mensch ohne Moral, war im Regiment Wronskijs bester Freund. Er mochte ihn wegen seiner unwahrscheinlichen körperlichen Konstitution, die sich hauptsächlich darin ausdrückte, daß er wie ein bodenloses Fass saufen und auf Schlaf verzichten konnte, ohne daß man ihm nur das geringste anmerkte.”

“And as a sign that everything was now all right in the world, she opened her mouth a fraction, and after arranging her sticky lips better around her old teeth, smacked them and settled down into a state of blissful rest. Levin watched these last movements of hers closely. ‘I’m just the same!’ he said to himself; ‘Just the same! Never mind... All is well.”